Chapter 5: The Day When Everyone Seemed Off

The next day when I got up to go to school, I noticed that Mom was still home.

"What's up, Mom? Why are you still home? Shouldn't you be at work right now?" I asked, confused.

"O-oh! Right! Yeah. I'm… um… running a little behind today. That's all," Mom stuttered nervously.

"Is something wrong, Mom? You seem nervous."

"N-no! I'm fine. Just peachy. I'm just frazzled since my alarm didn't go off this morning."

"Ok. I'm going to school now. I hope everything goes ok today," I said as I left the house, slightly concerned.

The walk to school was strange too. I kept getting a strange feeling that I was being watched. Every time I looked back, nobody was there. I guess I'm just paranoid. I hope school is normal today. It wasn't. We stood up and bowed when Mrs. Sakura walked in like we normally do, but she seemed surprised and flustered.

"What are you all doing? Aren't you supposed to be seated?" she asked, confused.

"But Mrs. Sakura, we do this every day," the class president responded, also confused.

"O-oh! That's right! Sorry, I forgot! I… uh… didn't get enough sleep last night. Yes, that's what it is!"

The class mumbled to themselves. I heard things like, "Is she ok?" and "Our teacher is crazy!" I had to agree. First Mom and now Mrs. Sakura. Did one of them mess with the adults today? That's got to be it! How am I going to catch them though? I sighed. I guess I'll have to wait until they decide to try and kill me.

The rest of the day was just as strange. All of my teachers acted just as crazy as Mrs. Sakura. I have to get to the bottom of this. How are we supposed to learn anything if the teachers don't even know what they're supposed to be teaching? How do I go about it though? I shouldn't just shout about Kyabe or the Seed Pocket. That'd just make everyone think I'm crazy too. I'll just ask Kyabe and see what she thinks.

The school day finally ended. One good thing that came out of this was no homework. That was the only good thing. I hurried home to find Mom there.

"Mom? What are you doing here? I thought work didn't get off until 6:30?" I asked, confused for the hundredth time today.

"O-oh! Um… well, I got off early because… today's a holiday! Yeah. That's right!" she said nervously.

"What holiday? I've never heard of a holiday where you get off early from work like that. Are you sure you're ok?"

"Y-yeah. I'm fine! Don't worry about me! Why don't you go do your work from school? Your… uh…"

"Homework?" I offered.

"Y-yeah! Your homework! Why don't you go do that?" Mom said as she pushed me up the stairs.

"O-ok. I hope you feel better soon," I said as I walked to my room.

Something is off. For some reason, Mom didn't… feel right. Alarm bells started going off in my head. I need to talk to Kyabe. Now. I threw the door open and saw that Kyabe wasn't there.

"Kyabe? Where are you?" I asked frantically as I searched the room.

"What are you doing, Hana? I thought I asked you to do your homework," Mom demanded from the doorway.

"O-oh! I was trying to find a pencil," I said nervously.

"Do you name all your pencils after annoying little cabbages?"

"W-what did you just say, Mom?" I asked suspiciously.

"O-oh nothing, dear!"

I walked over to Mom and stared into her eyes. I had a bad feeling about this. Mom sighed.

"I guess I blew my cover. Oh well. It was fun while it lasted," she said as she turned to liquid.

I scrambled to grab the Pocket, but an oily hand stopped me. All I managed to do was drop a seed from the Pocket. The seed was a purple and weirdly shaped, almost like a blob. Thankfully, it started to sprout. Unfortunately, the oily hand had me and I had no idea who belonged to the black seed.

"Hello, Hana!" the man that the hand belonged to spat. "Nice to meet you. I'm Abura, one of King Osen's top soldiers. It's a pleasure to kill you."

"Pfft. You must not be the top actor," I mumbled under my breath, buying the seed time to transform.

"What did you say?! I'll have you know that I graduated at the top of my class in acting!" Abura scoffed. "That's beside the point. Time to die, you insufferable wretch!"

Abura's other hand transformed into a knife. He raised it, ready to strike when…

"S-stop! U-unhand her. Now, please," a timid voice shouted, or at least, attempted to shout, behind me.

Abura and I both looked to see a girl standing there. Her bangs covered most of her eyes and she looked really scared. Aren't I lucky? I chose a scaredy-cat. Yay me. Abura looked at the girl and back at me. Then, he laughed.

"That's the best you can do?! That's so pathetic! Here I thought you would give me a good fight and this is who you decide to bring out?! Hysterical!"

"In my defense, you didn't give me much time to grab a seed," I argued, frustrated by my luck.

"S-stop! I mean it! Let her go!�� the girl whispered more than shouted.

Abura laughed even harder. He started slamming his other hand (now a hand again) on the ground beside me. He couldn't stop himself from wheezing.

"Um… a little help here?" I asked the girl.

She didn't move at first, but finally did and pushed the laughing Abura off me. He didn't seem to notice. He was laughing too hard. I hoped that maybe laughing so much would kill him.

"Can you fight? Now would be a perfect chance to get him," I told the timid girl.

"C-can I kill him?" she asked.

Did I detect a hint of hope?

"You can try."

"Really?!" the girl exclaimed excitedly.

"Sure?"

This girl was freaking me out now. She took a deep breath. Her composure completely changed. Her eyes flashed with excitement. She bent down, knife in hand, ready to strike. Abura didn't know what hit him. The girl kept stabbing him over and over, laughing maniacally. This girl officially freaks me out. Finally, she stopped and looked at me. She was flushed from the exertion.

"I did it," she said a little wearily.

I could tell she was still a little excited about killing him. What the heck is wrong with her?

"You did what, exactly?" Abura said as he got up.

There were no wounds on him whatsoever. We just looked at him in shock. How was this possible? He chuckled before answering.

"You seem to have forgotten that I can shapeshift, correct? I turned the parts that were being stabbed into liquid right before they were hit."

My knees buckled. I shouldn't have been surprised. None of the others died either.

"I'll be taking my leave now. I do hope you come up with a better strategy next time, dear," Abura said as he left us in shock.

When he left, the girl turned to me, crying.

"I'm so sorry! I thought I did it, but I failed! You saw that side of me and I didn't even do what I was trying to do! I'm so sorry!" she wailed, crying into my chest.

"I-it's ok. We'll get him next time. I promise!" I said, trying to be encouraging.

She nodded and pulled away. She was still crying, but not as much.

"What's your name?" I asked.

"I-it's Shitai. You don't think I'm scary?"

"N-no! I think you're pretty cool. In fact, we're a lot alike."

"Really?! You mean it?!"

"S-sure. I guess that's all. You can go now... Wait! Can you help me look for Kyabe?"

Shitai nodded so we both went to work. We found Kyabe in the closet, tied up and gagged.

"It took you long enough! Do you know how long I have been in here, waiting for you to find me?" Kyabe complained loudly.

"I'm sorry. I didn't know what was going on. I kind of had my hands full, you know." I said, slightly embarrassed.

"It's fine. What happened though? Your mom came up here and tied me up! What was that all about?"

"That wasn't my mom. It was Abura. Apparently, he's a shapeshifter, but his acting needs work. Shitai here drove him off," I explained as I motioned to Shitai.

"Hello," she said nervously.

"Hi, Shitai! Good work!" Kyabe said cheerily.

"I-I'll be going now," Shitai said as she turned back into a seed.

I shook my head and sighed. What had my life come to?

. . .

"Sire! Abura has been defeated!" Kagaku said as he stumbled in the darkness.

"What?! Is he dead?" the light growled.

"N-no, sire. He is alive, but was forced to retreat."

"Hmm. I underestimated the girl. Who should I send next? Who will kill this wretched girl, once and for all?"

"May I suggest him, sire?"

"Yes. That is a brilliant idea! She will not suspect him."

The light laughed menacingly into the darkness.